Today's destination was 226 miles to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. This would only be a one night stay. We woke up early and were on the road at 8:10 so we could have as much time as possible.
We pulled up to the Devils Tower KOA campground around 1pm. It was in a very convenient location directly in front of the entrance to the national monument. Unfortunately it was still too far away to walk to the visitor center and there was no shuttle service. We had no choice but to unhitch for this one night stay so we could drive in with the truck.
Seeing Devils Tower from our camp site was incredible and we couldn’t wait to see it up close. Adam and I worked together to setup camp and the girls went over to the playground. We could see them from our site which worked out great. The girls were very excited how the swings were made of tires and looked like animals.
We setup camp quickly and then drove towards the visitor center. After driving through the entrance gate you immediately pass through a prairie dog town. A "town" is a large colony of many prairie dog families with a maze of burrows they've dug under ground. We had never seen prairie dogs in the wild and it was hard to pass but we kept on going knowing we would stop on the way back.
At the visitor center we noticed a few people looking through binoculars and pointing towards the tower. We quickly realized they were watching climbers work their way to the top. Our binoculars were back at the truck and we struggled to see the climbers with our naked eyes.
We decided to first check out the inside of the visitor center and then go get our binoculars from the truck. Inside we got the girls their jr. ranger books, explored the exhibits and browsed the gift shop. The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed here and one of the aliens was inside.
Just outside of the Visitor Center was where they held Ranger Talks. We stayed to listen to a few of them.
The first was about the formation of the tower. The ranger started by telling us some very interesting tales that the native Indian tribes of the area would pass down through generations. This was very sacred ground for them and still is. Then the ranger explained what geologists know today. Even though much of it is still a mystery they generally agree it formed over a mile below the surface when magma pushed up rock layers 50 million years ago. At that time it wasn't visible as the rock was still underground surrounded by soft sandstone. Over many years erosion began to wear away the soft sandstone surrounding it but the much harder rock of the tower survived the erosional forces and left behind what we see today.
The girls really enjoyed the ranger talk and we all wanted to wait for the next. Adam ran back to the truck and got our binoculars so we could watch the very brave souls climbing the tower.
The next ranger talk was about climbing Devils Tower. Several climbers a day come here to scale the rock and we were fascinated to have watched several of them as they made their way to the top and then back down again. The ranger showed us all the tools the climbers need on their journey. The girls were picked to help demonstrate how the climber uses their hooks as they continue upwards.
When the talk ended the girls worked on completing their jr. ranger books. As soon as they were done we went back to the Visitor Center for them to be sworn in and receive their badges.
Next we headed over to the Tower Trail 1.3 mile loop that went around the entire perimeter of Devils Tower. As we hiked we made sure to keep an eye on Devils Tower to see how it continually changed.
The trail started out challenging with a steep incline but got easier as we kept going. It was a paved path with lots of beautiful ponderosa pines in the surrounding forest. The bark on some of the trees was multi-colored and was so cool to see.
We took our eyes off of Devils Tower as we came to a lookout point of the town in the valley below.
After standing here for a bit we continued on the Trail. Shortly after, we came to a viewing tube which was positioned to be able to see a historic wooden stake ladder.
Towards the end of the trail we came to a boulder field in front of Devils Tower.
It took us about two hours to complete the trail. Once we got back to the beginning we were all excited to get to spend some time at Prairie Dog Town. We drove down and parked in the pullout. In the flat meadow on either side of the road there were tons of them scurrying around. There were also tons of dirt mound tunnels they dug.
While we were here a few deer came to graze in the meadow too.
There was a path through this section too and we walked some of it to see some of the prairie dogs a little further back from the road.
At one point we could see a prairie dog resting inside of it’s tunnel.
By this point we were all ready for dinner. We stopped at the store across from our campground to quickly look around. Lily saw a prairie dog stuffed animal that she HAD to have so she decided to spend the last of her gift money to buy it.
We drove back to the RV and got a quick dinner together. Every night at 8pm this campground has an outside showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in a section where you can see Devils Tower directly in front of you. We went over to watch the movie with everyone. It was eerie to be sitting here watching because there was a thunder and lightning storm in the far distance. We continually saw streaks of lightning in the sky and heard the thunder rumbling. We lasted about an hour and then decided to go back for the night.
